Dark Chocolate Baked Donut Holes

I have known about national donut day for several months now, mostly because I have an awesome family who share really important dates like that with each other. Because you too want to know this vital information, it is Friday, June 5th.

I knew I wanted to do something fun to share, because who doesn’t love donuts? Actually, I’ve met a couple people, but we don’t have to talk about them right now.

I started out attempting an old-fashioned type donut, which turned out ok. But both my husband and I realized that we don’t really enjoy fried things all that much. It’s so hard to get dough that’s fried just right so that it’s done, but doesn’t end up just tasting like a bunch of oil. And to tell you the truth, I might have kept trying except I used the last of our oil in the first attempt and we’re moving in 2 weeks. It really just didn’t seem worth it. So, I moved to baked.

I tried a couple different recipes with this too and was really disappointed with several recipes that claimed to be moist. I followed the directions they gave in terms of cooling and glazing, with mouthful of glaze and dry donut everytime. I finally discovered the secret. You should not wait until the donuts are cool to glaze them! You’ve got to get them while they’re still quite warm. Then the glaze seeps in and traps in what moistness you can get from these baked things.

After you get them that first vital time, you can glaze them two or three more times if you like. I won’t judge you. I glazed mine twice, and then rolled some of them in sprinkles. And promptly ate at least 5 of them. Then I had to wait until the glaze was really set to try some more, just to make sure they were still good. Don’t worry. They were still moist and yummy. See the sacrifices I make for you people?

So whip these baked donuts up whether you catch the national holiday or not. They only take a few minutes and they’re really delicious. Like the kind of delicious that you have to share because you really want to eat all 30 by yourself.

Divide batter in the mini muffin pan, filling only about 2/3 full (which is not very much batter; I used my tablespoon sized cookie scoop, but couldn't fill it all the way or the tins would have too much batter).

Bake in preheated oven for about 8 minutes. Make the glaze while they are baking because you want to get them glazed quickly!

For the glaze: Whisk together cream, milk, vanilla and powdered sugar well until there are no lumps of sugar.

After taking the donut holes out of the oven, I use a butter knife to gently release each of the donut holes and turn them on their sides in the tin, so they can cool but not get stuck.

As soon as they are cool enough to handle (but still warm!) dip them in the glaze and place on a rack to drip.

If desired, dip in the glaze again after a few minutes to get better coverage. You can even roll in sprinkles while the glaze is still wet.

These brownies are layers of goodness: brownies, Nestle Crunch bars, peanut butter brownies and topped with melted chocolate and peanut butter. Super yummy and a fantastic way to get rid of some of that extra candy.